NVIDIA Updates: New Drives & More!

NVIDIA has just updated their blog to inform users about several new developments: new DirectX 11 drivers, a new GeForce Experience plus a software upgrade for their SHIELD handheld gaming system.

The new 337.50 Beta drivers will apparently give up to a 71% performance boost, depending on the game title. That’s good news for gamers like us. In addition, the new GeForce Experience 2.0 software will help optimise your settings for up to 150 different games. Also, Shadowplay (NVIDIA’s answer to screen-recording software FRAPS) now makes it much easier to stream to Twitch. If you’ve not tried GeForce Experience, I highly recommend it as it keeps your drivers up to date plus add a lot of cool functionality to your gaming rig.

Lastly, SHIELD users (like me) will be glad to know that notebooks can now be used for streaming PC games to the handheld. There’s also new support for Bluetooth mice and keyboards so users can plug the SHIELD into a flatscreen TV and turn the whole setup into a console. Last but not least, Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) also makes its way onto the SHIELD with this latest update.

For the complete story, head over to NVIDIA’s blog. But if you’re too lazy, here’s the post taken from the aforementioned website.

Simon Tan

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In our ongoing effort to provide an unmatched gaming experience, today we’re releasing new drivers that build on the DirectX11 industry standard to offer dramatically enhanced performance, a version of GeForce experience that’s packed with new features, and an over-the-air (OTA) software upgrade for SHIELD that’s chock full of new features.

New Drivers

Our new 337.50 Beta driver enhances the efficiency of the DirectX 11 driver to offer up to 71 percent faster gaming performance. Since these optimizations are made using DirectX, they can apply to a wide variety of different titles.

Looking at some of the most popular titles being played today, we see some significant performance gains. Call of Duty: Black Ops II will run 20 percent faster, Sleeping Dogs will run 31 percent faster, and Alien vs. Predator, Total War: Rome 2, and Sniper Elite v2 will all run more than 40 percent faster.

DirectX 11 will continue to be the graphics API powering the hottest titles throughout 2014. As we get closer to the end of the year, we’ll be seeing what developers will be capable of with a preview release of DirectX 12 (see “DirectX 12: A Major Stride for Gaming“).

With all DX11 GeForce GPUs (Fermi, Kepler, and Maxwell) offering support for the DX12 API, GeForce owners are in the ideal position to enjoy the top titles today, as well as the hottest new titles on the horizon.

In addition to capturing video, ShadowPlay is the easiest way to stream to Twitch.

Desktop gamers will also get the ability to capture the action on their full desktop, gamers can customize how their GameStreams are encoded, and gamers will get the ability to stream their games to SHIELD at home or on the go (see earlier post on SHIELD OTA).

SHIELD’s latest over-the-air upgrade includes major updates to our GameStream technology that helps SHIELD adapt to the way enthusiasts like to game.

Since the launch of SHIELD, gamers have wanted to play their PC games outside the home. With today’s software release, we are making that a reality with remote GameStream support – launching as a beta.

For complete remote access to your PC, we’ve built in wake-on-LAN support to allow gamers to remotely wake their PC from sleep mode and remote login support to let you log into a locked PC from SHIELD.

Giving gamers even more ways to play PC games on SHIELD, new Bluetooth keyboard and mouse support lets them pair their SHIELD with an HDTV in console mode and play their favorite keyboard and mouse PC games such as World of WarCraft, Civilization V, and League of Legends on their big screens.

And notebook support – also in beta – lets gamers stream to SHIELD from a GeForce GTX-powered notebook PC, including all GeForce GTX 800M, GTX 700M and select GTX 600M series GPUs.

Beyond GameStream, a new user interface on our TegraZone app lets you find games with just a touch of the NVIDIA button built into every SHIELD. And we’re making it easier to play more Android games the way you want, by adding a new user interface to SHIELD’s Gamepad Mapper, which lets you play thousands of games built for touch on SHIELD’s console-grade controls.

SHIELD will also be getting the latest version of Google’s Android operating system – Android 4.4.2, also known as KitKat. The result is a quick, fluid experience that continues to give SHIELD users access to the rich ecosystem of Android games, apps and utilities.